Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Cleats.
Manchester United: Mission Impossible
The fans connected with Manchester United can be forgiven for thinking the club is in turmoil. Old Trafford's managerial revolving door continues to spin, because on Sunday Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left the club. Three up and down seasons, and a recent terrible run of form made it impossible for Solskjaer to remain in the United dugout.
By John Woz Jr,4 years ago in Cleats
Juventus vs Lazio - Lazio Fades to Black
It was a tense game at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Lazio started the game with an impressive home game record not having lost at home all season … till now. It was an odd game to say the least, Keeping true to the duality of black and white, the game was end to end, yet lacking clear chances from both teams. Despite lacking the clear chances, it was a game you couldn't take your eyes off as a goal felt imminent from both sides with every passing minute. In this match (Szczesny: 6) had very little to do, actually the most pressure he felt all game was when Locatelli put him under pressure with a horrific back pass that could have changed the game with a goal in the first half. From there on out it was in one other instance when the giant Slav Milinkovic-Savic shot a rifle shot of a distance shot only to have it parried. De Ligt: 6.5, Kept good concentration all game and kept Milinkovic-Savic under control when he took on the ST role. Danilo: N/A, Subbed off early due to injury; (15′Sub - Kulusevski: 5) was largely invisible all match, provided very little attacking outlet, he did less for the remainder of the game than what Cuadrado had done in the opening 15'. Rabiot: 5, another player who did nothing all game and you could hardly tell was on the pitch. a game to forget, i would have loved to see Arthur instead. Locatelli: 5.5, good passing distribution throughout the game, did his job well, .. well except for that one play where he dangerously back passed to Szczesny, it didn’t cause a goal, but in any other game it could off, still an error that shouldn't happen; (89′Sub - Bentancur: N/A), not enough time on the pitch to do anything really. McKennie: 6, McKennie looked much improved defensively this game, spent most of it harassing lazio midfielders in the middle, did his job well in gelling oftentimes with Cuadrado/Kulu on the front foot. Cuadrado 6.5, A Classic performance from Cuadrado, defensively solid, and great on the attacking front with his trickery and directness, was more of a threat than Kulu even after having moved to RB. Morata: 5.5, Outside from being the chosen one to eat the tackle that led to a penalty, he didn't do much. Juventus actually looked far more dangerous in the final 18min of the game when Morata got subbed off; (74′Sub - Kean 6), in 18 minutes he managed to do more than Morata all game, why Morata keeps starting ahead of Kean is beyond me, Kean showed pace and strength, and earned himself to scoring opportunities his finishing was off, but that's another story. Chiesa: 6, didn’t play badly, but didn’t play necessarily well either, he more so than not looked frustrated and out of sorts. While Chiesa couldn't influence the game he did come close to something special in the first half where he was alone against the world with 5 defenders around him, and Chiesa looking to pull the trigger towards goal.
By Macuahuitl Musashi4 years ago in Cleats
3 Targets for Tottenham Hotspur in the January transfer window
Since the turn of the century, Antonio Conte became the 16th manager/head coach of Tottenham Hotspur. Conte's first task is to rebuild the confidence of his players, then he must bring in the reinforcements. Harry Kane is a shadow of himself, and Dele Alli is playing like he is out of his depth in the Premier League. Spurs need to strengthen the sqaud. There are plenty of transfer targets available, but should the club attempt to sign Kylian Mbappé?
By John Woz Jr,4 years ago in Cleats
NFL week 3 and 4 review
Week 3 Fantasy Football is a joke. Pathetic. Totally waste of time. Completely down to luck. As you might have guessed my team lost this week. I was beaten by Jess. Beaten is nowhere near a strong enough word for the trouncing she gave me. After umming and ahhing all week about which quarterback to put in, I went with Herbert over Tannehill, going against their ‘projected scores’. Turns out that was just about the only thing that went right for me this week. Herbert scored over thirty points, well more than Tannehill. Problem was that was not all that far off being half my whole team’s total. Kelce was reliable as always scoring twenty or so, the rest had a bit of a shocker. The less said about that the better. As it happened Jess’ team had a big week and sored over a hundred and fifty points, so I am not sure if it would have been worse to have wasted a good hundred and forty point week and still getting beat.
By Rob Watson4 years ago in Cleats
Getting it Done When it Matters
A constant debate in sport is about how much Champions are born or made. Some people believe that it’s virtually all down to natural talents that you are born with, whereas others, including myself, believe that hard and smart work can go an awfully long way. Often players who give the impression of being outrageously gifted are actually just showing off the results of thousands of hours of hard work. Michael Jordan the Basketball legend who most experts still class as the best of all time, would at first glance appear to be a good case study of evidence for those in the natural talent camp. Not only was he exceptional at all the basic basketball skills and made them look so easy, he also had that extra factor of being able to do physical things that no other players could, namely his magical ability to hang in the air and change direction whilst off the ground. Anybody making that argument would be ignoring an incredible work ethic that would put most humans to shame. Most people see an all-time great like Jordan and assume that everything has always been easy for him and that’s he’s always been outstanding. In this particular case the fact that Jordan got dropped from his high school basketball team completely flies in the face of that assumption. Successful people aren’t people who have never failed, they are people who have responded well to failure. Jordan himself is more than aware of this, he is quoted as saying: ‘I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.’
By Rob Watson4 years ago in Cleats
Reconciling With Mistakes: A Football Point of View. Top Story - October 2021.
2021 had a lot of football moments. The 2020 Euro Cup alone saw more own goals than the whole history of the tournament. And, in most cases, these own goals led to the defeat of the team. This made me think about the mental health issues faced by the players and the ways in which they deal with their mistakes on the ground.
By A Elizabeth4 years ago in Cleats
A brief history of FIFA Ballon d'Or
As per Sports Knowledge, the four bodies don't decide in favor of every player, except ought to pick three all things being equal. FIFA scored five focuses in the initial, three focuses in the second, and one point in the third. One can comprehend from this that citizens select three players in their turn.
By Shreya Poudel4 years ago in Cleats
England Vs Germany: Much More Than A Game Of Football
A few months ago, two longstanding epic foes went to war. This time, it wasn't waged in the trenches of Flanders and Somme, nor was it fought in the deserts of Torbruk and El Alamein or in the thick forests of Zamfara and Sambisa. On this occasion, it was in the gentrified, cosmopolitan surroundings of North-West London - Wembley, an erstwhile working class neighbourhood, which has had hundreds of millions of pounds pumped into it, thereby sanitizing it, of its demography, history and identity.
By Adebayo Adeniran4 years ago in Cleats
